ABSTRACT: The participants of a recent conference on democratization and
decentralization in Central and Eastern Europe [1] unanimously concluded that
the process of transformation in this region has stopped without having
fulfilled its aims. The Czech Republic is perhaps the only exception to this
general trend.
The frozen state of reform is especially evident in my own country, Slovakia.
Economic transformation halted partly as a result of the changed approach to
privatization. The administration of Prime Minister Vladimir Me_iar replaced
former policies of decentralization with a program of re-centralization and
`etatization'. A high-level official of his administration has even advocated
publicly the return to `building socialism'.
Developments since 1989 Decentralization and devolution of political power
became high priorities in the democratization of the Federal Republic of
Czechoslovakia immediately after November 1989. This was understandable, given
that centralization of state power by a ruling elite is one the hallmarks of a
totalitarian regime. With the abolition of the leading position of the
communist party, the revolutionary forces demanded devolution and
decentralization in order to democratize the Czechoslovak society on the
national, regional, and local level.
At the national level, the totalitarian, centralized federation had to be
transformed into a democratic federation made up of the two republics, each
having equal rights. Václav Havel at the start of the Velvet Revolution
emphasized the need to build an `authentic federation'. Theoretically, reform
entailed dismantling the totalitarian structure of the Czechoslovak
federation, manifest in the distribution of power between the all-powerful
federal centre and the powerless administrative and political organs of the
respective national republics. Practically, transformation made imperative the
re-distribution of political power between Prague and Bratislava and the
struggle of the Slovak part of the federation for greater authority and
responsibility. The outcome of this struggle was the splitting of the
Czechoslovakia and the creation of two independent states: the Czech Republic
and the Slovak Republic. ..

ABSTRACT: The articles are:. 1. The children's rights project in the
primary school "De Vrijdagmarkt" in Bruges, by John Decoene and Rudy De Cock.
2. The European Federation of City Farms and Working with children, by Marc De
Staercke and Ludwich Rech. 3. Kitty 007 : the name by which Anne Franck calls
us to hope and a future, by Lea Dherbecourt. 4. Monitoring children's rights
to education : an Inter-agency approach in the South West of England, by Mary
John. 5. The right to information : too vague to be true?, by Marian Koren. 6.
Convention on the rights of the child : education for the 21st century, by
Alena Kroupova. 7. Les droits des enfants appartenant aux minorités nationales
d'apprendre la langue maternelle et le droit d'etre instruits dans cette
langue - entre la lettre de la loi et la réalité de la société Roumaine, by
Ioan Oncea. 8. Le processus d'enseignement aux droits de l'homme apres 1989,
by Irina Moroianu Zlatescu et Virginia Maxim

REFERENCE TO GENERIC UNIT (Periodica): New York Law School journal of human
rights : vol. 12: part 3., p. 453-758. - New York : New York Law School, 1996.
- ISSN 8756-8926

LANGUAGE: ENG

ABSTRACT: The panels are:. I: Telford Taylor panel : critical perspectives
on the Nuremberg trials. II:. Comparative analysis of international and
national tribunals. III:. Identifying and prosecuting war crimes : two case
studies - the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda

NOTE (GENERAL): European charter for regional or minority languages;
Framework convention for the protection of national minorities; Recommendation
on an additional protocol on the rights of minorities to the European
convention on human rights (full text)

ABSTRACT: CONTENTS:.
Introduction.
1. The Armenians and Greeks of Anatolia.
2. The Nazi Attack on the Jews.
3. Soviet Deportation of the Chechens-Ingush and the Crimean Tatars.
4. The Expulsion of Germans from Poland and Czechoslovakia.
5. The Wars of Yugoslav Succession.
Conclusion Notes Acknowledgments Index